Syrians on the Move

Middle East Institute (Research Tool), Dr Karam Shaar, 20 Jul 2020

More than half of the Syrian people fled their homes due to the ongoing war. This displacement of around 13 million people is the largest in the world today. Where did they go? Existing resources on the subject focus on one group of people at a single point in time—most often, the refugees. So, Dr Karam Shaar designed this interactive research tool to help you find all the information you need on the whereabouts of Syrians over time. He tried to keep it intuitive, but if you need to do some analysis yourself, you can download the data he pulled together from various sources. The study is published in the  Middle East Institute.​

Download data

Bashar al-Assad: a man with a clan

Independent Research, Dr Karam Shaar, 24 Apr 2020

Every couple of months, you hear a new story about someone from the al-Assad clan – good luck telling who’s who. Many of the influential Assads do not have even a photo online. The Assads’ secrecy and the public interest in them provide the perfect recipe for rumors and half-truths. This article presents numerous examples of incorrect information about the Assads in local and Western media, including from the EU, Le Monde, and Pro Justice.

​The lack of knowledge about the family members and their roles in the regime is reflected in the names sanctioned by the US and the EU. Some influential players are not sanctioned, while marginal players are. In an attempt to shed more light on the better-known Assad kinships and their roles in the regime, Dr Karam Shaar built an interactive family tree.